Vampires crash a Depression-era Mississippi Delta juke joint in Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” a genre-bending period horror film that resonates with the power of blues and Black artists’ contributions to the world’s musical culture.
The 2025 film – which recently broke the record for the most Oscar nominations – is the next offering in Murray State University’s Cinema International screening series on campus, with two showings this week.
MSU Cinema International co-director Tamara Feinstein said that the film combines horror with a variety of other genres.
“It's almost like a musical. It's also a really kind of a scary horror movie, and there's also a lot of historical period drama information in it too,” she said. “[It’s] a good social commentary on what was going on in the Jim Crow South … [since it takes place]before the fruition of the Civil Rights Movement.”
Feinstein said that the film shows the diversity of the types of people who lived in the south, but it is also a love story and horror elements as well.
A pair of students – Karley Yahl and Erwin Macario – will speak about the film’s historic background at the screenings.
Yahl, a history student at MSU, said the symbolism in the film spoke to her.
“The historical aspect, just with the lighting and the sound cues and the storyline with the vampires and what it represented within the struggles of the south at that time, was a really powerful way to further the message that it gives us,” she said. “I think that the message that it presents is even true in our modern world today … and it shows a beautiful message that through perseverance and have a dream in something that you truly love, you can overcome.”
Macario said he was captivated by the way music is used in “Sinners.”
“It starts with how music can be more than just sound. It's more of a musical, And it adds identity to society and culture. I come from a culture where music is everything, where music people can easily live and make a career out of music at any time, having the right resources and talent, and that's what this movie shows us,” he said.
MSU Cinema International will be screen “Sinners,” on Thursday, Feb. 19 and Saturday, Feb. 21st at 7 p.m. in Faculty Hall room 208. The event is free and open to the public.
